Page 64 of You Wish
“Thank you,” the mother said with a shy smile.
“So we can get it?” the little girl asked.
“I guess so.”
The girl’s eyes went wide with magic, and she threw her arms around Jake. She was so tiny that she was hugging his legs. He picked her up and tossed her in the air, then made a bench seat with his arm. She sat there beaming up at him as if he were Stanta himself.
Georgia slowed, embarrassing morning-after forgotten, and pressed a hand to her chest when he set the girl on her feet.
Before Georgia could process what she was feeling, Jake bent over, his delicious ass on display and braced the tree. With a grunt of pure determination, hefted the massive pine onto his shoulder and walked it toward the family’s car without even breaking a sweat.
The girl clapped. The mom protested — something about it being too much, too big, too expensive. Jake just shook his head, eyes warm and certain, and kept walking toward the family’s economy-sized car. There was clearly no way the tree was going to make the ride home without breaking some laws of geometry.
But she was too busy watching the way Jake’s biceps flexed to care. Before she knew it, he’d had it strapped down and ready for transport.
The mom reached for her wallet but Jake waved her off.
“Let me at least pay you something,” she said.
“You’d be doing me a favor. I need to do a few last-minute good deeds to make it off Santa’s Naughty List.”
The mother gave an emotional laugh. “Thank you for making my daughter’s Christmas.”
“Thank you for making mine,” he replied.
Jake waved as they drove off and something in her chest warmed, like chestnuts roasting on an open fire.
How had she forgotten about this side of Jake? The side that made him Connor’s hero. The side that made her fall in love with him.
This was a man who gave without hesitation, made impossible things possible for people who needed it most, and who made a little girl’s Christmas perfect. In no way was she looking for a savior, but the kindness he exuded made her want to be near him.
Georgia was still standing there like her feet had been frozen in giant ice cubes when he spoke.
He didn’t turn around, didn’t face her, just said, “Enjoying the show?”
“I was just admiring your tree wrestling technique.”
Then he turned, a smile on his face like he was holding a secret. “Was that all you were admiring?”
“Okay, I was touched by the way you were with that family.”
His smile softened. “That family helped me remember what this season is all about. It made me think the upcoming party with Ben and how I almost passed up that opportunity. So thank you.”
“Why are you thanking me?”
He slowly strode toward her, his work boots crunching the gravel with every step, not stopping until they were but a snowflake’s width apart. “Because if you hadn’t come back to ask me a second time, I would have missed out on all this.”
“You mean that family?”
“That too,” he whispered, his eyes landing on her lips.
The snow was falling so softly it felt like the world had been muted, every sound wrapped in white. Georgia’s breath curled in front of her, mingling with Jake’s as they stood too close in a forest of Christmas miracles, like the universe had conspired to shrink the space between them.
She hadn’t meant for it to happen. She’d spent all day telling herself last night was a mistake, that keeping her distance was safer, smarter. But then he’d caught her running, and somehow she’d been laughing with him in the square, cocoa warming her palms, his words burrowing under her ribs where they refused to leave.
And now here he was, inches away, snowflakes clinging to his hair and melting against his lashes. He looked like every foolish, impossible thing she’d ever wanted but never let herself believe she could have.
Her heart thudded, wild and uneven. She should say goodnight. She should turn and go inside, lock the door, and build a wall high enough to keep him out.
